Triple H Has Big Praise For Tyler Rust After His WWE NXT In-Ring Debut

By Marc Middleton

This week's WWE NXT episode saw Tyler Rust make his in-ring debut for the company.

Rust worked a hard-fought match against Tommaso Ciampa, but lost. Timothy Thatcher came to ringside during the match to further his feud with Ciampa. There was an angle mid-match where Rust was tossed to the floor in front of Thatcher. Ciampa worked Rust over while taunting Thatcher. Rust accidentally kicked Thatcher as Ciampa moved. Rust returned to the ring while Ciampa and Thatcher argued until referees broke it up.

We later saw what happened during the commercial break. Malcolm Bivens came to ringside and repeatedly told Rust that he's a star as Rust recovered from the loss in the corner of the ring. Bivens told Rust to get up and they seemed to be on the same page as they left together.

Triple H took to Twitter after the show and gave major praise to Rust.

"To hold your own in an @WWENXT ring against @NXTCiampa is no easy task .... @TylerRust_WWE had a star-making performance. First of what will be many... #WeAreNXT #WWENXT," Triple H wrote.

Rust vs. Ciampa and the post-match angle with Bivens came after last week's show, which saw Rust interfere during Ciampa's win over Cameron Grimes. Thatcher insisted he had nothing to do with the interference from his former student. Bivens interrupted a backstage interview with Rust and McKenzie Mitchell later in last week's show, and mentioned how he had given Rust his business card the week before. They left together and went to discuss business. Rust had made his first NXT TV appearance the week before that, during the "Thatch-as-Thatch-Can" in-ring segment where he and Thatcher brawled with Ciampa as the go-home build for the "Takeover: WarGames 2020" match, which saw Ciampa defeat Thatcher.

There's no word yet on what WWE has planned for the Rust – Bivens alliance, but this week's show may have been the end of Rust and Thatcher working together.

Bivens later joked about the post-match fist-bump with Rust after responding to a fan tweet.

"That fist bump was CRAZY. Respect," he wrote.

WWE looks to have big things planned for Rust. They just announced his signing back on December 2, in the same WWE Performance Center Class as Deveon Aiken (Dezmond Xavier) and Zachary Green (Zachary Wentz) of The Rascalz. His real name is Russ Taylor, and he's previously used the "Rust Taylor" name on the indies. At the time of the signing, WWE touted how Rust has competed for wXw in Germany, as well as promotions in Japan and across the United States. They filed to trademark the "Tyler Rust" name on December 2, the same day his signing was announced.

Stay tuned for more on Rust and his alliance with Bivens. You can see the related tweets below, along with Bivens bragging on getting the follow from Rust. Video from the match can be seen above.

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